CVE-2026-31648

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm: filemap: fix nr_pages calculation overflow in filemap_map_pages()

When running stress-ng on my Arm64 machine with v7.0-rc3 kernel, I encountered some very strange crash issues showing up as Bad page state:

[ 734.496287] BUG: Bad page state in process stress-ng-env pfn:415735fb [ 734.496427] page: refcount:0 mapcount:1 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x4cf316 pfn:0x415735fb [ 734.496434] flags: 0x57fffe000000800(owner_2|node=1|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x3ffff) [ 734.496439] raw: 057fffe000000800 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 0000000000000000 [ 734.496440] raw: 00000000004cf316 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 [ 734.496442] page dumped because: nonzero mapcount

After analyzing this page’s state, it is hard to understand why the mapcount is not 0 while the refcount is 0, since this page is not where the issue first occurred. By enabling the CONFIG_DEBUG_VM config, I can reproduce the crash as well and captured the first warning where the issue appears:

[ 734.469226] page: refcount:33 mapcount:0 mapping:00000000bef2d187 index:0x81a0 pfn:0x415735c0 [ 734.469304] head: order:5 mapcount:0 entire_mapcount:0 nr_pages_mapped:0 pincount:0 [ 734.469315] memcg:ffff000807a8ec00 [ 734.469320] aops:ext4_da_aops ino:100b6f dentry name(?):stress-ng-mmaptorture-9397-0-2736200540 [ 734.469335] flags: 0x57fffe400000069(locked|uptodate|lru|head|node=1|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x3ffff) …… [ 734.469364] page dumped because: VM_WARN_ON_FOLIO((_Generic((page + nr_pages - 1), const struct page *: (const struct folio *)_compound_head(page + nr_pages - 1), struct page *: (struct folio *)_compound_head(page + nr_pages - 1))) != folio) [ 734.469390] ————[ cut here ]———— [ 734.469393] WARNING: ./include/linux/rmap.h:351 at folio_add_file_rmap_ptes+0x3b8/0x468, CPU#90: stress-ng-mlock/9430 [ 734.469551] folio_add_file_rmap_ptes+0x3b8/0x468 (P) [ 734.469555] set_pte_range+0xd8/0x2f8 [ 734.469566] filemap_map_folio_range+0x190/0x400 [ 734.469579] filemap_map_pages+0x348/0x638 [ 734.469583] do_fault_around+0x140/0x198 …… [ 734.469640] el0t_64_sync+0x184/0x188

The code that triggers the warning is: VM_WARN_ON_FOLIO(page_folio(page + nr_pages - 1) != folio, folio), which indicates that set_pte_range() tried to map beyond the large folio’s size.

By adding more debug information, I found that nr_pages had overflowed in filemap_map_pages(), causing set_pte_range() to establish mappings for a range exceeding the folio size, potentially corrupting fields of pages that do not belong to this folio (e.g., page->_mapcount).

After above analysis, I think the possible race is as follows:

CPU 0 CPU 1 filemap_map_pages() ext4_setattr() //get and lock folio with old inode->i_size next_uptodate_folio()

                                                      .......
                                                      //shrink the inode->i_size
                                                      i_size_write(inode, attr->ia_size);

//calculate the end_pgoff with the new inode->i_size file_end = DIV_ROUND_UP(i_size_read(mapping->host), PAGE_SIZE) - 1; end_pgoff = min(end_pgoff, file_end);

…… //nr_pages can be overflowed, cause xas.xa_index > end_pgoff end = folio_next_index(folio) - 1; nr_pages = min(end, end_pgoff) - xas.xa_index + 1;

…… //map large folio filemap_map_folio_range() …… //truncate folios truncate_pagecache(inode, inode->i_size);

To fix this issue, move the end_pgoff calculation before next_uptodate_folio(), so the retrieved folio stays consistent with the file end to avoid —truncated—

Weakness

The product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This occurs when an integer value is incremented to a value that is too large to store in the associated representation. When this occurs, the value may become a very small or negative number.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• If possible, choose a language or compiler that performs automatic bounds checking.
• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid [REF-1482].
• Use libraries or frameworks that make it easier to handle numbers without unexpected consequences.
• Examples include safe integer handling packages such as SafeInt (C++) or IntegerLib (C or C++). [REF-106]
• Perform input validation on any numeric input by ensuring that it is within the expected range. Enforce that the input meets both the minimum and maximum requirements for the expected range.
• Use unsigned integers where possible. This makes it easier to perform validation for integer overflows. When signed integers are required, ensure that the range check includes minimum values as well as maximum values.
• Understand the programming language’s underlying representation and how it interacts with numeric calculation (CWE-681). Pay close attention to byte size discrepancies, precision, signed/unsigned distinctions, truncation, conversion and casting between types, “not-a-number” calculations, and how the language handles numbers that are too large or too small for its underlying representation. [REF-7]
• Also be careful to account for 32-bit, 64-bit, and other potential differences that may affect the numeric representation.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/92.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/576543bedd616254032d4ebe54a90076f9e31740
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/633ab680c405ac390e6bec5b74aaf46197c837b6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/88591194df736a508dd5461ab2167a61e98caac1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9316a820b9aae07d44469d6485376dad824c5b3f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f58df566524ebcdfa394329c64f47e3c9257516e